Podcasts

(Airdate: December 24, 2024) We’re just outside the town of Wuwei and we’ve reigned in our bicycles by the pagoda named after the translator Kumarajiva. We’ve already heard the story about how Kumarajiva was held captive for seventeen years until he finally reached the capital of Chongan. The emperor had been so impressed the with his abilities as a translator and Buddhist commentator that he ordered ten ladies of the court to sleep with him in hopes of passing on his genius to future generations. When Kumsrsjiva died, we’ll learn how and why his tongue survived the flames of the crematorium, and what became of it.

(Airdate: December 17, 2024) On the way back to the town of Wuwei, we had stopped to gaze at the spire of a pagoda thirty-meters high, named after a Buddhist monk and famed translator named Kumarajiva. We learned last time how the Chinese General Luguang had been sent to subdue the Silk Road Kingdom of Kucha and bring back Kumarajiva. Upon returning to Wuwei, he found a new emperor on the throne, so he refused to return the monk and created his own kingdom with the dusty garrison town of Wuwei as its captal.